There are only FIVE days left until the photo shoot and I must admit, today I KILLED IT in my workouts–all three of them, but especially cardio boot camp. Maybe it was the protein smoothie boost I had after my Just Lift class that kicked in by the time my cardio boot camp class started. Whatever the case, my suicides and sprints were out of this world–so much so that one of my classmates asked me, “Did you run track in high school?” I responded, “Who? Me? Yeah, maybe in a past life!” LOL Honestly though, when I was doing my sprints, I felt so POWERFUL and STRONG. I felt FAST and I was FAST. I reminded myself of a mere ten or eleven months ago when I hated running. My knees ached and no matter how hard I tried, it seemed I couldn’t go fast enough. My lungs and heart just wouldn’t support that type of exertion. Well, today my lungs cooperated, my heart was strong and my mind said, “GO FASTER” and guess what, I DID!

Now, when someone asks me were you a sprinter in the past, I will say, no, but I am now! LOL I’m working on it. We’ll see where I am by this summer! :)

It seems like the universe is conspiring against me not to finish out my challenge strong! Over the last few days it has been difficult to get my six meals in AND temptations surround me at EVERY turn! But, I will prevail!

Today, as the entire nation knows, was Super Bowl Sunday. It was my intention to go to church and afterward spend a quiet, restful evening at home. My plans were thwarted because one of my very good friends came to town for a Super Bowl Party and invited me to come with. At first, I was going to back out, but then decided to go because I really wanted to spend time with my friend, and I recently chided myself for being a bit anti-social as of late.

So, in preparation for the party, I decided to eat my planned 4:o0pm meal of turkey meatloaf and mixed greens as well as drink some water. I didn’t want to have to eat at the party, but I knew I would have to since I still had two more meals left for the day.

We arrived to the party and immediately, offers of beer, sangria, and wine were thrust upon me. As I have never been a drinker, it was pretty easy to say no to these. Besides, I bought my 32oz nalgene bottle and was content to sip from that all night. Pretty soon, the hostess announced that the food was ready. I let my friend fix her plate first so that I could survey what was available and have a plan BEFORE I got to the buffet line. Fried chicken, baked chicken, mac and cheese, string beans, crab seafood salad, dinner rolls, carrots, and a cheesy meat dip with tortillas were the available options. From that selection, it was pretty clear what my options were: baked chicken, string beans, and carrots. When I got to the buffet, I selected one wing drummie, 2 tablespoons of string beans, 3 carrots, and I also decided to get a spoonful of the crab seafood salad. I returned to my seat and began to eat. Unfortunately, I could only stomach the carrots and the tablespoon of crab seafood salad. What they say about your taste buds changing in as little as three weeks is definitely true! Well, the chicken was seasoned well, but unfortunately the skin wasn’t removed first and there was no tackful way for me to remove it…so I just didn’t eat it. Also, with one bite I could tell that SUGAR had been added to the string beans. I couldn’t believe it! Who adds SUGAR to string beans???? Those beans were so sweet I couldn’t eat them. I haven’t had sugar in so long–probably about two months (since I was in Mexico for Christmas). And, though I eat veggies every day, the only seasonings I usually add are garlic, onion, herbs, cumin, etc. So, I couldn’t stomach the beans.

Pretty soon, cake and pie were offered but I wasn’t even tempted by those. I just said “no thanks” and that was that. By the time the Super Bowl was over, I felt ok. Besides, just in case something like this might happen, I prepared in advance by making a protein smoothie and leaving it in my car (it was cold enough) for the ride home.

So, today, I learned a few things: 1) I still need to learn how to navigate meshing my lifestyle change with social situations. My first thought was to just not go but I don’t want to become an isolated hermit. I also don’t want to compromise my choices. I think I did ok tonight. I was not even tempted to eat fried chicken, and the mac and cheese just wasn’t all that appetizing to me. 2) Even if I did decide to try the food, like the fried chicken and the mac and cheese, I don’t think my taste buds or my digestive system would allow it. So, my taste buds have totally adapted to natural foods. In essence, they have been re-trained.

In sum, there are only six days of the challenge left and I am determined to stick to my plan! No matter what the universe throws my way, I am ready! Oh, also, I am strong enough to say no. It seems things that used to tempt me don’t any longer. :)

Today, I took a long nap and threw my eating pattern off a little bit. When I woke up, I was really hungry. Because of this wrench in my plans, I added extra protein to two of my later meals instead. I’m not going to even TRY to get six meals in today. As a result, I am a little under my caloric goal for today, but not by much because the extra protein boost did help.

On the subject of DANCE, I have another Zumba! video to share with you. The title of this dance is Living La Vida Loca–it was so much fun!

I still haven’t figured out how I am going to reward myself, but I think it will be along the lines of a ticket to a concert or performance of one of my favorites artists!

I found myself in a quandary today because I failed to implement my mantra of “prior prudent planning.” The question I asked myself when I arrived home at 10:10pm was “should or shouldn’t I eat”? While I had successfully went through most of my day and consumed most of my meals on time, I did not sufficiently plan my last meal–partially because I consumed my first meal too late. So, as I arrived home, I had a decision to make: go to bed not having consumed enough calories for the day because I only ate 5 meals or eat a small meal and go to bed after about an hour to an hour an half (to allow the meal to begin digesting).

In the end, I decided to have the meal because I was actually quite hungry. As you see above, at 5:15pm I had Shrimp and Veggie Stir-Fry and at 7:40, I had a smoothie. This smoothie was after an evening workout. After the workout, I was unable to go home immediately because I had plans to go to church for a special service. Because I knew I was going to church after working out, I prepared the smoothie in advance and left it in my car! The service lasted until about 9:30pm, after which I came straight home. I knew I needed one more meal because I was not within my calorie range for the day and I was still hungry from working out (I guess the smoothie wasn’t enough)–we did high interval cardio and weight lifting.

So, in my indecision I decided to just have the meal so I would stay within my desired range for daily calories. The meal was actually quite light, with about 250 calories, so I think I will be ok.

I am SOOOOO HAPPY my gym opened back up this evening. I am even happier that it was relatively easy getting myself out of my parking spot! Because my gym opened, I decided to go to the evening classes and as a result, ended up having my last meal later. It’s ok since it was a protein smoothie and my muscles need the protein to recover! :)

I can hardly believe there are only 9 days until the photo-shoot! I have been thinking that I have been working hard to achieve my goals of discipline and sticking to my plan. I feel like I need a reward, an exhalation, a pause to thank and recognize myself and my body for going on this wild ride with me. I am having a hard time thinking of rewards for myself on this one. When you achieve major goals, what do you do to reward yourself? Any ideas?

So, the blizzard went DOWN, but without my help! It went DOWN as the worst storm in recent history, maybe??? Supposedly, 25 inches fell in some places in the city. This breaks the record for the day and establishes a new record for the month of February!

Today’s picture is of my parking lot. My car is the 4th car on the left. Not so bad, huh? LOL I feel bad for the owner of the 1st car on the right.

Today, I found out that, once again, my exercise classes are canceled for Thursday. I would have done a boot camp class and a legs and glutes class. So, tomorrow I will probably do Cardio P90X again as well as the Leg and Back P90X.

I’m going to have to venture out tomorrow, because today I realized I am low on egg whites and yogurt. If my parking lot isn’t plowed, I might walk to the store—its only about 8 blocks away. It all depends on how cold it is outside—I hear the temperature is supposed to be below zero with a windchill.

Good thing the groundhog, Phil, didn’t see his shadow today! Early spring!

Because of the BLIZZARD in Chicago, one my favorite classes was canceled: Zumba! Also, my Wednesday morning class (Kettlebell Muscle Power) was canceled as well. Though I’m a little sad, I’m not worried because I have P90X and a few other DVDs to keep me going. To make up for not having Zumba! tonight, I did a Cardio Hip Hop DVD–it had 3 ten minute workouts. To make up for missing Kettlebell Muscle Power, I will probably do a Reebok Boot Camp DVD as well as a Dynamic Toning DVD (which includes yoga, dance, weight training, and pilates techniques.) In sum, I’m going to get it in! Unless the power goes out, this blizzard can’t stop me! LOL :) If the blizzard does take the power out, I’ll just do old fashioned jumping jacks, squats, lunges, run up the stairs, and my FAVORITE: BURPEES! HA

I got my six meals in today! YAY!!!! :)

I went to the grocery story today to stock up on some perishables like veggies as well as more lean meat. The line at the grocery, at 1:00 in the afternoon was SUPER LONG! I guess everybody else had the same idea as I did! LOL

If you have to go out, be careful! Otherwise, don’t try to fight the weather–you probably will just end up face-down in the snow! :)

The picture in this post is after a 12/2009 snowstorm in Madison, WI. It snowed so much that tree branches snapped–pretty dangerous. I snapped this picture on my cell phone after the snowstorm–I was walking to the hardware store to buy a shovel to dig my car out of its space. Ended up not needing the shovel because I had a great landlord who dug me out!